


Make the Yuletide Gay

by InkwellSelkie



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Christmas, F/F, First Kiss, Fluff and Humor, Humanstuck, Metaphors, Useless Lesbians, so many stupid metaphors
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-21
Updated: 2019-06-09
Packaged: 2019-09-23 19:43:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 4,628
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17086532
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/InkwellSelkie/pseuds/InkwellSelkie
Summary: Kanaya was someone who loved things and places with emotional value already attached to them, but that wasn't to say she didn't also have a penchant for making discoveries that were new and beautiful. And blonde. And snarky as shit.





	1. Jack Frost Nipping at Your Nose

**Author's Note:**

> this started out as just a short that I wrote for a december challenge, but I gave up on that challenge three days in and now I'm making this longer. Enjoy it if it's enjoyable I guess!!!

Dark, inky clouds covered the sky, winds swirling with puffy snowflakes, more of them blanketing the sidewalk. Kanaya peered into a store window as she passed, a bookstore to be precise. It's display was abundant with books in bright colours and promises of sales for Christmas shoppers. She looked away and continued walking down the sidewalk, the bustling traffic beside her afroth with noise and motion. Her breath puffed up in frosty clouds in the air as she strode down the street, quilted scarf billowing in the wind behind her. The apartment complex came into view, and a welcome surge of relief filled her chest.

Kanaya was someone who loved things and places with emotional value attached to them, which was something her tiny studio apartment didn't have, but she couldn't care less at the moment. She missed her family home back in Lima, sure, but after the day she'd had at work, all she cared about was curling up under a mound of blankets with so many cookies she wouldn't be able to move for a week and an eggnog, if her roommate hadn't drank it all already. Spiked or not, she'd decide when she got there.

As she turned the corner, the sound of music filled her ears, smooth and sultry notes mingling high and low amid the snowflakes swirling in the air. Violin, she recognised. She walked closer to the crowd surrounding the source as the song came to an end, eliciting a smatter of cheers and whistles. Several people walked away, leaving Kanaya an opening into the circle.

"Are there any requests? Asked the woman in the middle. She was tall and slim with a bleached blonde bob dusted with snowflakes and tattooed thorns winding around her delicate fingers that clutched a bow. Under her chin was a violin, but there was no hat or basket in sight. She wasn't performing for money, Kanaya supposed.

Kanaya chirped up. "Would you perhaps do Carol of the Bells?"

The woman's eyes flickered over to where Kanaya stood, lighting up with something between a grin and a smirk as they landed on her. It was, admittedly, a little unsettling of an expression, but it softened somewhat as she positioned her bow above the strings.

The opening notes filled the air, languid and sharp all at once. Kanaya closed her eyes to listen, and felt a mellow feeling wash over her mind. As the song progressed, the dip and dive of notes sweeping over the frosty air, she gradually began to feel some semblance of a will to live invading her thoroughly exhausted mind.  
She had always been a touch dramatic, she supposed. 

The song was cut short when the violinist's phone rang loudly, a few bars of a heavy metal song Kanaya knew.

"It appears my roommate requires me at home," she announced, sighing. "That's all for tonight, have a pleasant evening!"  
And she packed up and left, just like that.

Kanaya blinked as the crowd dissipated. With a shrug, she continued on her way, flinging open the front doors with gusto and taking the stairs rather than wait for an elevator.  
"Jade, I've arrived." called a newly familiar clipped voice down the hall.

When she turned her head, Kanaya caught the briefest glance of blonde disappearing into room 424.

Whatever. She had a dubiously-existent mug of rum and eggnog waiting for her. Pushing open her door, she was greeted with the extra warmth of the fireplace, before which Vriska was curled up on the floor with her laptop open in front of her. She didn't acknowledge Kanaya's entrance verbally, but did offer a nod and a wave in her general direction as she continued to type at her essay. Our heroine hung her scarf and peacoat on the upper corner of the nearest cupboard, kicking her boots haphazardly toward the mat and trudging toward the fridge, predictably near-empty.

"Oh riiiiight," drawled her roomate suddenly. "Before I forget, whatserface Peixes has some...liiiiiike, i dunno, she wants us to come over for something saturday evening. You're coming, right?"

"What else would I be doing?" Kanaya shrugged, closing the door. She marked saturday on their calender. "All my classes are pretty much done for the semester."

Vriska nodded, sated.

"Cool cool, whatever. Now, c'mere. Does this look plagiarised to you?"

She scooted over, making Kanaya a space in the warmth of the plushy black quilt.


	2. On the Fourth Day of Christmas

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Holy FUCK i totally forgot about this for like three whole days and now it's Christmas Eve expect a double update and some crying

Rose loved her family, truly, but sometimes, they really, really sucked. 

To be perfectly clear, perhaps even so far as to claim clarity to the point of glass, which is to say extraordinarily motherfucking clear, they were great and all, but Rose did enjoy simple things in life that didn't require a million years of ridiculously noisy planning. Like sleeping alone in an actual bed in a silent room. And sleeping at all.

It wasn't like she wasn't happy to be able to spend Christmas with her family, however small. With Roxy and Dirk always off in wherever-the-fuck making weird government gadgets, her mom constantly travelling, and she and Dave suffering through University, it was really kind of a miracle that despite all their conflicting schedules, they still managed to get together for as long as they did. 

But that didn't mean it was nice having everyone in the apartment.

It had been her turn to host the family this year, and as small as her living quarters were, Jade had been all for it, and somehow seemed to get along with Rose's family better than she did herself. But that wasn't the worst part, and neither was the indisputably inconvenient lack of space. The worst part was the noise.

Snoring at all hours of the night. Giggling from the room Roxy and jade were sharing all hours of night, morning and afternoon. Bustling and occasionally, crashing, from the kitchen whenever.....whenever anything. It was constant havoc and Rose could feel the last dregs of her mental stability slowly slipping into oblivion, where she often wished to follow but was always interrupted and brutally wrenched back to the land of the living by someone screaming or breaking something or laughing or all three.

Groaning as something shattered in the kitchen, Rose set down her notebook and dropped her head unceremoniously into her hands. Honestly, if she could have sold her entire family to Satan for a couple seconds of peace to study, she’d have done it. Uncle Bro got a pass for at least making an effort, but he was on thin fucking ice. 

Eventually, Rose couldn’t handle it anymore. Slipping on her coat and toque, she took her project outside, offering nay but a hasty “going out” before closing the door behind her and darting off downstairs. 

It was cold outside, but the skies were clear and a magnificent cerulean. She blew out a puff of cloudy breath and smiled discreetly as she made her way down the street. The library was close, and usually rather quiet, as libraries were prone to be, be it due to force of social pressure to remain thusly, the literal brute force of a particularly aggressive librarian, or simply a lack of interlopers to provide noise factor. Rose pushed open the building’s door, and found it far from empty, but in the very least, quiet, blissfully so, and felt a warm sensation of relief tug at her mind. She took an empty seat at a table near to one of the windows and set back to her writing.  
It was only a few minutes later when she took notice of the woman next to her staring at her. 

Rose had gotten used to being occasionally given odd looks since she’d first gotten her tattoos, but her gaze didn’t seem to be judgemental like she was halfway accustomed to. It felt rather...nothing. No emotion i n particular could be discerned from the feeling of her eyes alone, so Rose turned her head as discreetly as she could to observe the woman herself.

And her poor, innocent sapphic brain absolutely melted.

The woman was absently scrolling on her computer, which Rose didn’t care to look at, and from the side she could see the sharp angle of her jaw, the way the sunlight from behind turned her dark pixie-cut feathery and gold and pooled on her sharp cheekbones. She wore pearl earrings and sanguine lipstick, the colour reminiscent of dark, bloody viscera, and a large, quilted scarf made from various fabrics; fake newspapers, the iconic hospital-curtain-fabric, chartreuse satin, a small Peruvian flag, soft, viridian wool, various patterns probably torn from bedsheets. Her expression was relaxed, her dark eyes half-lidded as she stared into her screen.

She was also achingly familiar, so evidently someone Rose had seen before but had played to small a part in the scene for her to be able to recall exactly where she was from.

Suddenly, the woman turned her head back to look at Rose again, and our long-suffering heroine was caught with her lily-white hand in the metaphorical cookie jar.

“Um, I uh, sorry.” the woman muttered, turning back to her work, posture suddenly stiff and pallour heating.

“No no, I, sorry, I just…” Rose spluttered, fighting to keep silent. “Have-have I seen you before?”

“Yeah I thought so too! I thought for a second I might just be crazy!” Cried the woman. An older man across the table shushed her, and she smiled back apologetically. Rose tried not to look too long at her mouth, or the chip in her incisor giving it a canine ferocity. She lowered her voice as she turned back to Rose. “You sometimes play the violin on the corner of 106 and 30, don’t you?”

Rose gaped for a second. Okay, so maybe she had been trying to gain a little bit of a reputation. The “mysterious violin lady” sounded like a much more suitable and admittedly desirable memory for her than “that one useless goth lesbian”, but somehow she hadn’t actually expected someone to recognize her. The street corner felt kind of like its own little world where she was a woman of myth and people would see her and then move on, and probably forget she existed. Never had she had someone connect that life to her life outside that bizarre hobby.

“Yeah, that’s me.” she admitted. “I started as a way to relieve stress during finals last summer, and now I suppose I’ve taken it up again to escape my noisy family.”  
The woman hummed. “Family can be a handful can’t they?”

“Tell me about it.” Rose groaned.

“Oh, but where are my manners,” she whispered again. “My name is Kanaya, Kanaya Maryam. I’m a Horticultural Sciences Major.”

“Rose Lalonde.” Rose replied, reaching out a hand to shake. “Double majoring in Literature and Psychology.”

“Impressive.” Kanaya murmured.

The elderly man across the table, making a theatrical and emotionally moving re-entry to the narrative, scoffed and ruffled his newspaper as if speaking in aggressive body language and nonverbal preening would rid him of the noisy students. Taking the hint, Rose muttered a sarcastic apology and wrote down her number on the corner of her notebook page, sliding it across to Kanaya with as wink.

Okay, so maybe that was purely for her own benefit and she may or may not have been considering it anyway, but if no other member of the company was made aware of that fact via speech then she supposed they’d be none the wiser and she’d simply let them be.

Kanaya raised an arched eyebrow, but typed the number into her phone nonetheless, at which Rose felt rather victorious. Not a second later, she received a message:

?????:  
Are You Flirting With Me Presently

Rose:  
Depends. Do you want me to be?

Kanaya:  
Oh Wow How Smooth  
Would You Happen To Be A Leg In A Venus Advertisement  
How Shall I Put Into Words The Extreme Smoothity Of Rose Lalonde  
I Feel As Though I Should Brace Myself To Not Slip

Rose:  
Your use of sarcasm intrigues me.

Kanaya:  
Oh So You Are Flirting

Rose:  
I don’t believe I was particularly subtle.

Kanaya:  
You Discredit Yourself

Rose almost giggled involuntarily, and glanced up at Kanaya to see her grinning sweetly at her. Her phone buzzed in her hand. Eagerly, Rose looked down, prepared to type again.

Dave:  
hey can you pick up takeout on your way home  
i think rox broke your fucking oven

Why. Why couldn’t the world just let her have nice things.


	3. In a One Horse Open Sleigh

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It was December when I started this story. As of now, it is June. It's fucking June.  
> I'm sorry and I promise to finish up within two weeks.

Christmas celebrations were Rose's  _fucking jam._

She had always loved winter. Not only was it nice to stay inside all day and not have her idiot brother mock her for it -despite doing the exact same thing at  _least_ half the time- but the majority of her most treasured memories were made building snowmen with her big cousins or lobbing snowballs at passing cars on the highway. And Christmas? Well, she'd never had the chance or cared enough to learn much about the religious aspect, but it was still fun to celebrate, even if something about the atmosphere had faded with the years.

Her phone bleeped as she was frosting a gingerbread man's leg. Rose wiped her hands on her apron and tucked a lock of hair that was falling out of its curling pin back in before glancing at the screen and smiling.

_Kanaya: My Roommates Sister Is Visiting And She Is_

_Kanaya: Absolutely Batshit_

_Rose: The roommate or the sister?_

_Kanaya: Hm Both In Opposing Ways I Guess_

_Rose: How so? In my case they're usually and presently quite similar in batshittery._

_Kanaya: Vriska (Roommate) Is Whining And Complaining Instead Of Her Usual Yelling And Grumbling_

_Rose: Wait, you know a Vriska? Vriska who, Serket?_

_Kanaya: Yeah Shes My Roommate How Do You Know Her_

_Rose: She's a regular at the bar where I work. Angry drunk. Wow, small world._

_Kanaya: Wow Small World Indeed_

_Rose: And her sister?_

_Kanaya: And Her Sister Is Bugging And Fussing And Meddling Like My Mother_

_Rose: Hmm. It seems to me like what I said when we got coffee on Friday didn't make an impact._

_Rose: You are a naturally buggy and fussy and meddle-y person and you can't stand being showed up at what you do best._

_Rose: What you are saying is_ _hypocritical, as you are in fact recognising your own traits and deciding you dislike them in someone else._

_Rose: You know what that means?_

_Kanaya: That You Need To Shut The Hell Up I Get It Youre A Psych Major_

_Rose: Well I was going to say you're very self aware and as a meddler, very caring but you are right._

_Kanaya: Sure_

_Kanaya: That Big Psychoanalysis Was Sarcastic Though Right_

_Rose: To quote my stupid brother, "duh"_

_Kanaya: Sarcasm Is A Nasty Habit You Should Try To Curb That_

_Rose: Perhaps. But addiction is a powerful thing._

_Kanaya: Ha Ha Ha Okay Miss Snarky_

* * *

 "Dave! Get your ass in here, we're going to be late!" Rose called into the depths of her apartment.

Dave half-sprinted-half-stumbled out of the bathroom, blazer and unbuttoned shirt flying behind him as he continued trying to gel back the sides of his hair, with little success. He also left the light on. 

"Well okay jeez, sorry if a guy wants to look fuckin nice for a change." he replied. She had a feeling he was rolling his eyes behind those pretentious sunnies.

"Looking nice for a change shouldn't take two hours. Just accept your hair won't hold that style."

"Also turn off my bathroom light!" chirped Jade, shoving her feet into her white-faux-fur snow boots. "The landlady will yell at me if our electricity skyrockets again like it did last Halloween!"

"Fine fine, yeesh. Gonna talk me to death before I can button this fly as all hell fuckin jacket."

"Please wear an actual coat over that." Rose sighed.

* * *

Feferi was one of the lucky losers that could actually afford her own house while in college. And it was a nice place too. Not mansion big, but a far cry from Rose and Jade's cramped little flat, with a lush little flower garden hidden under all that snow and a  _pool_ in the backyard. Rose almost wished she wasn't so stubbornly self-sufficient and had taken  _her_ absurdly rich mother's offer to cover her housing. 

When she flung open the door, radiant in mussed curls and a loose lime-green dress and clearly already slightly tipsy, Feferi practically squealed and threw herself on Jade, pressing a big, sloppy kiss to her cheek and inviting them in, announcing the addition of the trio quite loudly to the rest of the house.

Rose kicked off her boots and handed the tray of cookies they'd brought to Feferi, who launched into some long, overbearingly cheery thanks. She backed away as politely as possible.

It wasn't a huge party, and it was anything but the wild shindigs Rose had forced herself to attend in her first year. It was like they were all trying their best to play at proper adults, save for the blessed abundance of cheetos on her kitchen table and Jade's brother John absolutely annihilating Karkat at Just Dance. There was simply not a man alive that had the  _C'mon_ routine mastered as perfectly as he did. It would be intimidating if it didn't mean he spent all his free time second year practising the  _C'mon Just Dance_ routine while Dave waxed poetic on his couch about the deeper meaning behind Ke$ha's bright, flirty promises of corner meximart bubblegum and sabertooth tigers. 

Rose watched the second half of Karakat's inevitable defeat until John decided the fortnite default dance was the perfect way to celebrate his victory before deciding it was all she could take and going over to the kitchen to pour herself a glass of sangria.

What was there to even do at "mature" parties? Watch her roommate and her girlfriend be disgustingly sweet on the armchair? Get shitfaced and cry in the bathroom? 

 

_Rose: Sorry to bother you_

_Rose: But I'm bored._

_Kanaya: Ha Ha That Sucks_

_Rose: I can't tell if you're being genuine or condescending._

_Kanaya: Maybe Both_

_Kanaya: What Are You Doing_

_Rose: My roommate's girlfriend is hosting a Christmas party. I'm gorging myself on cheetos and wine._

_Kanaya: Sounds Boring_

_Rose: Wow, thanks._

_Kanaya: That Was Sarcasm_

_Kanaya: Wait A Minute Is That You_

 

Rose looked up from her phone and glanced around wildly. Holy fuck this was just like something out of that awful romance book where the protagonist is lonely and bored at some lame party and the mysterious love interest shows up and they didn't know how close they were to almost meeting before and-

Yup, there was Kanaya, looking absolutely ravishing.

She wore a dark, silky blouse layered over a green turtleneck dress, lips and eyelids painted cherry red, her face locked on her and lit up with a brilliant grin. Rose felt the breath leave her. Then Kanaya slipped on the kitchen tiles in her fuzzy socks and smacked her face into the wall.

"Oh my god, are you okay?" Rose asked, half frantic half restraining a giggle as she helped her to her feet.

"Yes I'm fine," Kanaya replied with an awkward chuckle "Though I have to say my dignity is not as intact as my head."

Rose let herself laugh even though what she said really wasn't that funny and didn't take her hand off Kanaya's arm, since she made no effort to shrug it off herself. "So, what are you doing here?"

"Same as you, my roommate knows Feferi, though I'm also pretty close with her. Hey, I just came up for a snack, but there's a movie on in the basement, would you want to come down with me?"

She nodded and still kept her hand on her arm as Kanaya filled a plate with popcorn and a cookie and led the way downstairs. 

* * *

While Rose prided herself on her abundant knowledge of Christmas movies, she had never seen  _Elf_ before, like an absolute chump. Kanaya took personal offence to this and made sure to shush her whenever she made any sort of commentary. Which was often. 

"Oh shut up you little chatterbox, look! This part is important!" she said more than once.

"That's what you've said about every part!"

"Because they're all important!"

By the time Buddy's dad unboxed a seductive Santa-themed brazier, the two girls had  _somehow super accidentally_ found their legs intertwined and arms tucked over one another's shoulders.

"Even this? I mean come on, you have to admit  _this_ scene is pretty dumb."

"It's called humour, Rose."

"It's uncreative is what it is."

Someone else joined them just to watch the ending, at which Kanaya was trying not to cry in order to preserve her intricate eye makeup. Rose rolled her eyes.

"It's really not that moving of an ending." she commented. 

Kanaya refused to talk to her until midway through the next movie,  _Home Alone 2_.

Four movies in, everyone involved was passed out in one big heap.

 

 


	4. Happy Golden Days of Yore

Kanaya woke up warm and drowsy with drool on her face. She gathered from the vague glimpses of the world snatched from between the flutterings of her heavy eyelids that she wasn't at home, tensed for half a moment, and remembered  _oh right I was at a party because that's something I do now I guess._ Letting herself relax again, she closed her eyes and fell back into the sofa. Somebody's chest rumbled over her belly and they tightened their arms around her.  _Wait one minute._

Somehow, without even opening her eyes she knew it was Rose. Or hoped. But she opened her eyes and- _oh._

She was right, it was Rose, Legs curled against Kanaya's right side and top half lazing on top of her. Her arms wound around Kanaya's waist, and she had to pity how dead they were going to be when she woke up. Her head lay on her chest, and Kanaya noted the ginger roots growing in under her mess of bleach-blonde now-flat curls that tangled up around her pearl earrings and the way her lavender blouse, backless and tied behind the neck exposed a lush flowering rosebush tattooed between her shoulder blades, two long wiry branches winding down and around her arms. Her back rose and fell slowly with her breathing, warm and soft on top of Kanaya like a big teddy bear. But warm. Yeah.

Soft music was playing from the general direction of the TV set as the main menu of  _Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer_ looped over and over and over. Sunlight streamed in pale and cold through those high basement windows. Someone's foot was on Kanaya's shoulder. She craned her neck to see who but they were folded in half over the back of the couch. 

 _How do you even sleep like that._ She thought.

Having a pretty girl asleep on you is much like having a cat asleep on you; you can't just get up. In fact, you shouldn't even move at all. But the person with their foot on Kanaya's shoulder was starting to twitch and their  _toes were on her face fucking gross_. Kanaya jerked her shoulder slightly to get it to move. It didn't.

She jerked harder. No result.

Finally, Kanaya just picked her arm off of Rose  _slowly, so slowly_ and moved the leg over the back of the couch. 

Their balance disturbed, the person flipped over and fell down the side of the couch. There was a loud thump and some boy yelled "Ow! Dave what the hell!" Rose jerked awake, sitting up with her arms braced on either side of Kanaya and her mouth and eyes gaping open vacantly. 

Shit on a stick. 

There was more complaining from behind the couch. Dave climbed back over the couch and demanded to know who threw him off. "What happened?" Rose slurred. "Why're you yelling?"

Kanaya groaned and buried her face in the cushion in shame.

* * *

Feferi tried to make breakfast for the few people that had ended up accidentally staying the night, but let's face the facts: she couldn't cook to save her life. Kanaya excused herself from the dining room after trying to hide how badly she was gagging on her "omelet" and went to get her coat and boots on. She could get breakfast somewhere else. That place down the road from the nice cheap nail salon had pretty good BLTs. 

As she was saying her goodbyes, Kanaya spotted Rose fixing her mussed-up hair in the hallway mirror. She had rumpled clothes and bags under her eyes and was pouting like a child and damn it if she didn't look like a catch. Kanaya let herself stare for just a fraction of a second and steeled herself. Hungry. Breakfast. Shower and change. She reminded her brain of her immediate requirements.

 _Hnnnnnng gorls_ her brain replied.

She slipped off her boots and forced herself to walk over.

"Rose." she said by way of greeting.

"Hm? Gah!" replied Rose, glancing up too quickly and hitting her head on the shelf over the mirror. "Ahhh son of a bitch. Yes. Hi, sorry, what do you need?"

"I uh," Kanaya said, eloquently. "Do you want to go out? Right now? We could get breakfast -unless you would rather eat here- and then there's free skating in the park if you're interested?"

Rose blinked at her for a second. Her jaw went slack.

Kanaya sweated. They'd already been on a date, why was this so awkward?

"I'm afraid I'm awful at skating," Rose sighed coyly. "You  _might_ need to hold my hands..."

"Oh ha ha," snorted Kanaya, rolling her eyes good-naturedly.

"Of course I'd like to." she clarified. "Right now. Though I wasn't joking about being an awful skater. Or holding hands, naturally."

"Naturally."

Kanaya grinned goofily, showing off her chipped tooth, and held out a hand for Rose to take as she slid her boots back onto her feet. Rose paused midway through shrugging on her puffy yellow parka to text someone. A voice Kanaya recognised vaguely as the girl named Jade yelled "GET SOME" and started giggling madly in the other room. Rose groaned at this. "Don't pay her any attention."

"Too late."

* * *

Two women, one tall and blonde, the other shorter and darker, whirled around the mostly-empty public rink, equally sloppy and clumsy. True to her word, Rose clutched Kanaya's mittened hands like a lifeline. Giggling, they slipped and slid around over the ice in rented skates and party clothes from the night before. Fluffy snowflakes floated gently down around them, resting like tiny stars in Kanaya's dark hair. 

"When I said I was terrible at this, I didn't expect you to take it as a challenge to be worse." Rose quipped.

"Oh shut up," Kanaya snarked back. "I'm not the one that snores like a tractor."

Rose hummed, smirking, and slid a fraction closer so their breaths mingled together, warm little clouds between their faces. "If you say things like that a bit louder people will get ideas about how we spent last night."

"I haven't the slightest idea what you could mean."

"My family are leaving Christmas Monday and my roommate will be spending the weekend with her girlfriend," the taller woman said. "If you'd like, I'd be happy to explain in excruciating detail."

Kanaya snickered and moved in even closer, pressing their lips together. And oh god, it was perfect. Soft, pliant lips and warm, open mouths and the sweetness of black tea and peppermint toothpaste and gentle arms holding one another close and snowflakes falling around them, just like all those horrible Hallmark movies.

"There is nothing I'd like more."

 


End file.
